Every atom and node created in ARK O/S is sealed the moment it is made. The seal is a SHA-256 fingerprint of the work, recorded in a public registry.
Whatever enters - a film, a document, a feed, a chat, an image - is recorded at its moment of entry, with its source wherever it has one. Signals arrive already named.
Nothing is laundered of where it came from.
Each version is fingerprinted: a SHA-256 hash of the body, sealed write-once with its date.
Edit the work and you don't overwrite the seal, you add a new one. The old fingerprints remain on the record. Every version keeps its own seal, and the lineage is public.
A seal that no longer matches its body is not an update. That is tampering, and it shows.
Paste any Third ARK fingerprint or URL below. Your browser checks it against the public registry directly.
Our servers are not consulted, and need not exist.
Paste a Third ARK URL or fingerprint. Your browser hashes it and checks the public registry directly. No account, no permission, no trust required.
Below is a sealed specimen and its living fingerprint. Change a single character and watch the seal break.
Real cryptography, computed in your browser.
The truth of the record
does not depend on our servers being up.
CHAIN
UNBROKEN
This certifies the chain of custody, not the truth of the claim. It proves these sources existed, this piece came from them, and nobody has touched it since. Whether the piece is right remains the author’s burden. As it should.
The passport works without ARK O/S. Submit a piece and its sources. Receive a seal and a public verification page. The publisher pays. The reader checks for free.
An embeddable badge for Ghost and Substack footers. API documentation on release.
Join the waiting list →The passport certifies the chain of provenance, not the factual accuracy of the content. It proves the sources existed, where it came from, and that nobody has touched it since.
Whether the piece is true remains the author’s burden. Their word is their reputation.
A broken chain means the content changed after sealing. Treat it accordingly. Any passported URL can be checked here, whether or not its author uses ARK O/S.
Read the manifesto →